Chesterfield and VSU collaborate on water tower

Friday

Jan 17, 2014 at 12:01 AM

CHESTERFIELD - A plan to construct a water tower to be used by both Chesterfield County and Virginia State University - a move that could save both entities about $1 million each - is moving forward. Chesterfield County Utilities Director Roy Covington s

CHESTERFIELD - A plan to construct a water tower to be used by both Chesterfield County and Virginia State University - a move that could save both entities about $1 million each - is moving forward. Chesterfield County Utilities Director Roy Covington said that the county and university started accepting bids Thursday for the 2-million gallon water tower.

The county and VSU each had planned separately to build a 1-million gallon water tower, at the cost of $3.5 million per tower. Both parties found that if they pooled their resources, they could build one 2-million gallon tower for $4.5 million. The costs to engineer the water tower are estimates at this time.

The new tank would be located on VSU's Randolph Farm along River Road and would serve the university, and surrounding customers along River Road from Ettrick to the road's border with Colonial Heights.

The university is also in talks with the county to allow the VSU Trojan to be emblazoned on the tank.

For the county, the tank is a replacement for the Matoaca tank, a 150,000-gallon tank built in 1958. The 200,000-gallon tank on VSU's campus that currently supplies the university's privately-owned water system, doesn't supply enough water for firefighting requirements and increased demand.

The project comes as the university makes plans to revamp aging sewer and water systems, and possibly merge them in the county systems. Chesterfield would then be responsible for routine maintenance costs.

Jane Harris, director of capital outlay for VSU, said the university has applied for state funding for the major improvements to the university's water and sewer systems.

Harris said that university's water tank, sewer and water systems are outdated.

"Some of our lines on campus are over 62 years old and they are prone to breaking in an unannounced way that can be disruptive to the university," she said. "Our tank doesn't have sufficient capacity to care for the firefighting storage requirement right now as it is."

Members of both parties said the collaboration strengthened the relationship between the county and the university.

"I think an opportunity like this to partner with a state entity is great and I feel fortunate that VSU and the utility depot identified this opportunity," Covington said. "It ultimately saves money, and that is the real success story here."

- Leah Small may be reached at 722-5172 or lsmall@progress-index.com.

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